Somerset defeated Warwickshire by 31 runs to keep alive their hopes of a first County Championship title, and they did so because their captain, Chris Rogers, ignored a piece of advice from Marcus Trescothick.
The 40-year-old, a veteran of 202 international matches, advised Rogers to stick with the spinners when Warwickshire resumed on 131 for eight on Thursday morning, requiring another 53 for victory. For an hour, Rikki Clarke and Chris Wright chipped away at the target against the spin of Jack Leach (who took six for 42) and Roelof van der Merwe. But then, with the target down to 37 and the stand worth 86, Rogers had an idea. He brought on Lewis Gregory at the River end and with his fourth delivery the seamer had Wright caught behind for 45. The last man, Josh Poysden, followed, caught Trescothick off the bowling of Leach, five runs later to give Somerset a 19-point win and a push up the table.
“I just thought the batsmen had a bit of rhythm going with the spinners and sometimes a bit of a mix-up, with the ball coming down at a different pace, can create something,” Rogers said. “Marcus was telling me to keep with spin but I had a feeling. I thought Lewis bowled a very good spell with the new ball on Wednesday, as good as he’s bowled for us for a long time, and we just needed a touch more pace in those conditions. It was probably as much to do with luck as anything.”
Trescothick said: “We talked about it in a huddle this morning and Chris was very inclined to bowl Lewis from the bottom end. But I said: ‘No, you’ve got to go with two spinners today because I don’t think it will swing.’ Clearly he doesn’t listen to me, and it’s just as well.”
Trescothick had reasons to celebrate aside from the win. When he took the catch at leg gully to finish the match 40 minutes into the day it was his 394th for Somerset in first-class cricket, more than any other fielder in their history apart from wicketkeepers.
The indifferent pitch contributed to the early finish and Rogers said: “It wasn’t the sort of pitch I would want to spend my career batting on. Each ball behaved a bit differently and that creates questions in the minds of batsmen, which makes them tentative.
“In our first innings it was swinging and seaming as much as I’ve seen it for a long time. It was not what we’d hoped for, but sometimes the overhead conditions provide that. And the early start. And Keith Barker is one of the best bowlers in the country in those conditions. And the other bowlers are very good too.”
Warwickshire’s loss leaves them still concerned with the threat of relegation, with only one match to go, at home to Lancashire from 20 September. The captain, Ian Bell, who scored just one in the match, said: “We didn’t play well enough to win the game. There were some pretty poor shots. We’re right in the mix now at the wrong end of the table. At the end of this season, whatever happens, we really have to address where we’re going in four-day cricket. And how we want to go forward.”
Bell was not an admirer of the pitch either. “I don’t think it’s great for first-class cricket to see a wicket like that,” he said. “I don’t know what it gains English cricket to play on surfaces like that but it certainly worked for Somerset in this game. I wouldn’t say it was a bad pitch. It wasn’t dangerous. But it wasn’t a great pitch either. Having said that, you have to be able to adapt to all surfaces and we didn’t do that well enough.”
